© 2024
Prairie Public NewsRoom
Donate
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

Homestead Act

  • Homestead Plot Problems
    Katie David
    On this date in 1903, two men may have been feeling some heat from the Department of the Interior Land Office. John Calkins and Peter Christenson owned separate plots of land near Minot, but were challenged by their neighbors, who accused the two of not meeting the terms required by the Homestead Act of 1862.
  • A Lack of Good Faith
    Prairie Public
    The Homestead Act of 1862 was designed to encourage the settlement of the American West. The Act had a rather rocky beginning. By the 1850s there was…
  • The High Cost of Land
    Prairie Public
    The Homestead Act of 1862 encouraged people to take a chance on settling the Great Plains. Any citizen or intended citizen could lay claim to 160 acres.…
  • The Luckiest Cuss in Burke County
    Prairie Public
    The Homestead Act, passed in 1862, opened the west to settlement. Ordinary people, even freed slaves, could claim land and establish farms. In order to…
  • Proving Up
    Prairie Public
    Abraham Lincoln signed the Homestead Act in 1862. This act opened up 270 million acres of land to homesteaders. Individuals who were 21 and the head of a…